Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games. I write this only for entertainment purposes.
A/N: Here is my first ever Hunger Games fanfiction. I do adore the story, but I've always sort of fancied Peeta with someone better suited to him. If you are a die hard Peeta/Katniss fan, you have been warned. This is just another way things could have gone. I also was not a huge fan of the quarter quell idea suddenly appearing in book two, though I did like book 2, so I took it out. Much of the events will be the same starting about the same time Catching Fire picks up, but with a few major changes.
This first chapter moves fairly quickly.
I'd love you for you to give this a shot and review. Thanks!
Chapter One: The Visit
"This cannot happen." President Snow clarified. His tight smile and calm demeanor never wavered. "She cannot be seen to have outsmarted the Capitol." He pointed to Katniss Everdeen as the assistant brought him his tea.
"Love cannot be stronger than our Unity. Romance is not more important than Order, than security, than unification. If something good stands up against us, then we are seen as bad. We are guarding people; we are wise for them, strong for them. We do not need any rash, star-crossed teenagers giving people ideas."
"That's not a problem." Peeta's kind voice was the first to respond. "We aren't even really in love." He explained.
It was not his usual tone, though. He tried to keep it hollow- not cold, but empty and polite- when Katniss was around. She noticed. She couldn't look at him, not after she hurt him the way she had.
It was strange, having shared everything they had, to be even more distant from Peeta than before the games. Before, their paths had crossed here and there, but she didn't know him. Not really. After the games, he was, in some ways, the only person who did know her. But since she had told Peeta it was an act, a chasm had formed between them. An icy one. And though neither seemed to like it on their landscape, neither knew what to do about it.
There had been a few times, like when the peacekeepers first arrived, that he had been there to stand up for her, lying for her when she was caught with her prey. Or when the minor mine collapse sent her into a panic, the noise like an explosion, he had calmed her down. He appeared from nowhere, holding her back until Gale emerged. When one little girl feinted in the street, her hair around her head reminding her of Rue, Peeta's voice had brought her back from the games.
But most of the time, he seemed to be avoiding her.
Gale listened; he tried to understand. He picked up the pieces and was more brazen with feelings, even if she was not sure he could return them yet. Watching her kissing Peeta had been hard on him. He did not want to hold back and leave any room for doubt about her mind. When Peeta had seen Gale kiss her as they came out of the woods, his face had been pale and blank.
It was at that moment before President Snow as well, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in worry, and he refused to glance sideways at her.
Snow watched them, swallowing his tea in an unsatisfied fashion. "That's not good enough." He shook his white head. "Not nearly good enough. Then it's worse, an act in defiance of the games rather than desperate love, games that have been in place as important reminder of our past for three quarters of a decade!" His voice grew firm. He leaned forward, the elbows of his suit touching the table in Katniss' house.
"So here is what is going to happen. You two are going to break up."
"Done." Katniss replied defensively. They caught each other's sideways glance for a split second.
"No, no. You are the image, Ms. Everdeen."
"Image?" She asked, not understanding.
Snow considered her a moment. He turned nonchalant again as he explained. "You have no way of knowing this, but since your stand with berries, there have been uprisings."
"Uprisings?" Katniss caught her breath.
"In a few of the districts." He shrugged it off.
"In Rue's?" She blurted before she could stop herself.
He did not answer that directly. "We need them to see you were not subverting the government. We need them to see you as a silly girl, Ms. Everdeen, who was and is concerned with only with herself."
"Do you really think making Katniss look bad and us look broken up will fix the problem?" Peeta asked innocently.
Snow leaned back in his chair. Well, it was Katniss' chair, but Snow seemed to claim what he sat in and where he walked, reminding the residents of Victor Village it was all his anyway, given to them by the Capitol in exchange for their assets, and occasionally their children. "Do you know what will happen if we do not?" He challenged, still calm and almost amused. "Fighting. More Peacekeepers in the districts, tighter security. Burned fields, wrecked cities, strikes which mean higher prices on food, which means less food. Is that what you want? Is that what you intended to start?"
"What do you want me to do?" Katniss asked determined.
Snow began fiddling with something at the desk, not looking up as he spoke. "My sources tell me you have already found love in your district with a miner, yes?"
She straightened up, not answering. Peeta did not seem to respond at all.
"It's good." Snow reassured them. "It's good you have fallen for your own type of people, not our star victor, but someone from twelve who does the work of twelve. We'll let people see that. We will let them feel sorry for our Capitol's favorite." He held up his hand, indicating Peeta.
"And?" Katniss asked.
"That is all, for now." He tilted his head. "Do you think you can do that?"
She nodded.
Peeta inhaled. "I'm not going to make Katniss out to be some sort of… cheater. It wasn't like that."
"You can be tight lipped about it." Snow told him. "You can even be nice; it will make them like you more. Just look heartbroken."
It took him a minute to reply. "Yeah." He said sardonically. "I think I can manage that."
"You can't." That was the last reaction she ever dreamed Gale would have to the plan.
"What? Gale, what do you mean I can't break up with Peeta? I'm not with Peeta. I'm with—I mean, I thought you wanted…" She blinked.
Gale took her by the shoulders. "Katniss, this is bigger than us. What you did made people think about the games—no, more than that, Katniss, you got them to feel. And when people are too busy or hungry or spoiled or distracted or scared to think… they can still feel. What happened in there with Rue and everything." He struggled. "It made a difference, Katniss. If you go on tv and trash your image, part of that chance at rebellion, at hope, is trashed too."
"But Gale, the peacekeepers are already ruining things here. There will be more of them if this keeps up, and less food, fires, executions, war… you don't want that, you can't." She shook her head.
"That's exactly what they are counting on us to think, that it's not worth it. That if we try, they will make it so much worse for us. Fear is how they control us, just like the games."
She cut him off just as he got excited. "You don't know what you're asking for. Gale, I've seen that."
"No, you've seen kids forced to kill each other for entertainment. That's not the same as fighting for a cause."
"Death is death, Gale. Death in the mines, death in the arena, death in war. And what about last time? District 13 is gone now, and everything the same. What if next time it's District 12?"
He was silent a minute, the birds cooing in the trees the only sound in their patch of green hill they risked visiting while the peacekeepers were busiest.
"And the games?" He asked at last, the setting sun hitting his eyes. "They continue forever? We just give up our kids one at a time instead of risking it all, like some sort of sacrifices to the gods." He scoffed throwing up his hands. "Snow the god. That's what he thinks he is, Katniss. And maybe he's right. If no one will stand up to him or question him, not even you." He added quietly: "What if next time, it's Prim?" He leaned forward, his nose almost touching hers.
Fear flashed across her face, chilling her. "I'll volunteer again."
"And if you die, and it's Prim again?"
She looked away. "Maybe there's another way. Maybe there is something else I can do."
"What were you thinking?" Haymitch demanded as soon as they were alone.
"I didn't know they were going to kill him!" She shrieked. "I swear I didn't know. I was just thinking about Rue and Peeta had—" They could hear the chaos erupting outside in District 11. More shots were fired. There were yells. It was exactly as President Snow warned it would be.
She was just trying to apologize for Rue, for everything. She was not trying to start anything. Tears stung her eyes.
"Just stick to the cards next time." They told her. "Just stick to the cards."
She did, though it was not easy, and it did not seem to help. The people were not interested in hearing the anthem or the hollow words of praise to Panem. They did not care for their stiff smiles, or seeing the victor's fine, new clothes. They eyed Katniss warily, some saluting her and being beaten for it, some screaming at her to speak out, not from the cards. For their own sake, she did not, but she found it increasingly harder to smile. Even thinking of what Gale would think to see mockingjays hidden and vandalized along their journey could not lift her spirits completely.
Even Effie's false cheer wavered as they finally arrived in the Capitol for the ball. Peeta and Katniss remained friendly, but he did not touch her more than was necessary. When she had nightmares, he woke her, listened. She almost asked him to stay the night, just so she could fall asleep peacefully, but she could not bear to see the look of pain it would give him, to lie right next to her knowing he couldn't have her.
"Never mind." She said instead. "Goodnight."
Cinna, at least, was a welcome face in the city. As usual, he seemed to understand everything. Katniss confided what she could in him before the interviews with the victors began and she had to put on his masterpiece of a dress.
"No more innocent little girl dresses for you." He said, putting her in a black number she was afraid was a little too sexy for her. "You're a force to be reckoned with, and it's time they knew it."
"Twirl?"
"Save it for the end." He winked. "It doesn't matter tonight what you have to say."
"How can you say that?" She puzzled. "That's all that matters."
"Everything you can't say, this dress will say it for you. I think," he eyed it affectionately. "It's my best work." He reached forward to brush her hair back as it was down, save a decorative braid that made her look, well, regal. Her face looked beautiful but fierce with its gold and black make up. "And it's all for you, girl on fire."
"Thank you, Cinna."
"Good luck." He smiled a tiny smile and slipped out for her to get changed.
"Katniss!" Effie hissed. "Hurry! Peeta is already on!"
Music blared over the screams of thousands of people, a sea of bizarre and bright colors applauding for the end of victory tour.
"Ladies and gentleman, they were everyone's favorite, and then they surprised us all by winning together. Tonight we have… the couple on their victory tour!
"First tonight, we have Peeta Mellark," Caesar annunciated every syllable of his name. "The baker's son from District 12. But this handsome, if unlikely, hero proved to us anything can happen in the games." He nodded at his own words as the crowd applauded. "Now Peeta, first you must tell me: what's life like since the games?"
"I've been very fortunate." Peeta said, not smiling brightly. "The Capitol has provided me and my family with everything we could need and want." He added. "It's been very nice living in Victor Village, and the tour here in the Capitol has been great. Everyone's so friendly." The people liked that.
So did Caesar. "Well." He joked with a tilt of the dead, laughing at his own humor. "Of course. Of course. But Peeta," he paused, becoming more serious. "Forgive me for saying, but you don't seem particularly happy."
Peeta laughed sadly, glancing down in a way that made the audience sit still with bated breath. "Well, the Capitol can't do everything."
Caesar glanced at the camera, then back to Peeta. "And how about things between you and your little lovebird! Ha ha!" The screens showed clips of their intimate moments from the games and shots of their happiness after the win.
Peeta smiled sadly but looked away from the screens.
"Uh-oh." Caesar sensed. "Now Peeta, you cannot possibly tell me, tell us," the host look properly horrified. "That there is trouble in paradise."
"Well," Peeta clapped his hands together, taking a deep breath.
"No, no, no, no." The crowd gasped and booed. "You can't do this to us. We have all been so happy for you, Peeta, our victors saved by their love! Oh, it's so perfect. You cannot do this to us. There simply must be a chance at saving it."
"Well, I'm not really doing it." A few people caught on. "Katniss found someone else."
If there was ever any doubt the people in the Capitol had a favorite victor, it was erased at that moment. The jeers and hissing coming from the crowd made Caesar frown and even give a little eyebrow wag of surprise as they expressed their distaste.
"No, no please don't." Peeta put up his hands, standing a little then sitting back down. "Please don't. It's—it's not her fault. Katniss and I are still friends, and I wouldn't want anyone to say anything bad about her."
"Oh!" Caesar clutched his chest dramatically. The crowd 'aww-ed', just as Snow had predicted. "There you have it folks, the best of men, the best of victors, and the recently single, it would seem." Caesar winked, and several shrill calls of enthusiasm came from the audience. "Peeta Mellark!"
A/N: I'm excited for this to get to the next part where things get interesting. Reviews welcome!